Winnipeg Forecast

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Today starts a streak of extremely cold weather for this time of year for the next few days. As expected, lows this morning dipped well into the -30's across southern Manitoba. It even got close to -40°C in some cases, with the coldest spot being Rennie at -42.0°C. Winnipeg airport dipped to -34.9°C, not even close to the old record low of -38.9°C in 1879. The following is a map showing overnight lows today:

Thanks to a clipper system moving in tonight, we'll likely just creep up above -20°C late this afternoon or this evening. This clipper system will bring some snow overnight tonight and tomorrow morning with 1-2 cm possible, AT MOST. Not a major system by any means and conditions are not ideal for a heavy snowfall. However, another cold front passes midday tomorrow and that will usher in strong winds of 30 to 40 km/h which will create blowing and drifting snow on highways. Travel unrecommended once again tomorrow afternoon as a result.

Extremely cold air, some of the coldest so far this winter, will be ushered in Friday night. Lows on Saturday morning will likely resemble those of this morning's, albeit it may even get a couple degrees colder. Lows between -35 and -38°C in the Winnipeg area not out of the question. Temperatures will struggle to rise on Saturday with highs likely only in the mid -20's. We have a very good chance at breaking a record low maximum for the day considering the old record low maximum is -22.2°C in 1972.

Unfortunately, the cold is expected to dominate for at least the next 2 weeks. There will likely be some brief warmups, but in general cold is expected to win out.

February summary to come this evening or tomorrow, and the winter summary will be posted on Saturday. I have gathered some interesting stats for the winter summary so be sure to come visit!

*****Correction: Originally I stated in this post that the all-time record low maximum in March was -25.0°C on March 9, 1948. However, I made a mistake, the record is actually -26.7°C on March 7, 1880.

Sunday, 23 February 2014

Today will be the last windy day of this streak of windy days, with northwest winds of 30 to 40 km/h expected today. Blowing and drifting snow in open areas will once again be a problem. Winds will finally lighten tomorrow at 20 km/h. There may also be a few light snowflakes today but little to no accumulation is expected.

Unfortunately, the entire week ahead is looking frigid with temperatures at least 10 degrees below normal and by the end of the week potentially as much as 15-20 degrees below normal. Just to add salt to the wound, breezy conditions on some days will only make it feel even colder.

The first enhanced push of arctic air moves in on Tuesday with highs likely not even reaching -20°C. However, an even colder push of arctic air moves in for Thursday-Friday, and this one has the potential to be some of the coldest air this winter. Lows in the -30's are likely on some nights and highs will remain well in the -20's. At this point, record overnight lows look like a stretch, but we may flirt with record low daytime maximums. Luckily, the coldest of this air doesn't look to last long with slight moderation by the weekend and into next week, but below normal temperatures are still expected.

At this point, not major shift to above normal temperatures is in the foreseeable future with a continued general cold trend to begin March. On the bright side, no major snowfalls are expected in at least the next week.